How are people doing with TBI recovery?

Hello @lisalucier, What was critical to my TBI recovery is a great question. Medically it was really wonderful hospitals, doctors, nurses and therapists for sure, but that goes without saying. Family, friends and coworkers staying with me was critical as well, but for me it was never giving up.

Aphasia, is my main side event, I talked like the Swedish Chef from the Muppets. So I listening to albums from my favorite bands and sang with them. While watching TV news I talked about the story as if the reporter and I were having a conversation. I would do much the same thing while listening to the radio in the car. And, just as importantly, I read aloud.

My second side event is short-term memory, I started a new hobby. Bought a mandolin (an instrument I knew nothing about) to learn a brand new thought of mind. Learning to read sheet music to chord, pick or strum notes. For a simple song, took me hours daily before I didn't need to use that sheet music for every measure. Took another month (or two) before that songs sheet music were stuck in a notebook instead of next to my lap.

Eight years after my injury, I discovered more therapy still to come.
1) I joined the Mn. Brain Injury Alliance Speaker Bureau to help alert the general public about brain injuries.
2) The Courage Kenny Rehabilitation Center, where I had my speech & occupational therapy, had a TBI support group. I went to my first meeting 14 years ago and haven't stopped, not only as a member, but now as the facililitor.

Those two items above has become my own self preservation therapy. 21 years ago I was told that recovery is a 1 - 2 real process, I am here to tell you that recovery is a life time process. Will aphasia and short-term memory ever leave me alone, or continue to be pain in the neck? Will I ever get back to 100% of my pre-injury self? I don't know, I'm "pretty" good at where I am now, knowing that as long as I don't give up, I will gain. Remember that old phrase "If you snooze you lose". I refuse to lose what I worked so hard to achieve, so moving forward is my daily routine.

Very happy for you. May 7 2024 was 10 years for me after a craniotomy for access in my left temporal lobe. This was a positive life transformational event but not always easy

Hi, @craigdunn - that is encouraging that you are still improving, making changes and experiencing insights 31 years later after your TBI. You talked about a tutor being key to recovery. Will you share more about a tutor: Do you have one? If so, for what functions, and how has it helped you?

@jean01 - are you using your paper to-do lists or shopping lists to remind you of things, or are you using an app?

Hi,

My tutor since died but have his 228 weeks of notes, his work with me.
There us so much more that can be done, simply following my plan of action, which I am editing but it takes time. I have ten thousand hours invested, twice that writing notes.
I kept notes on two topics or so.

Craig